Most existing mobile terminals can be used not only to set up telephone calls but also to execute a plurality of applications downloaded into a secured module connected to the terminal. This security module can be a memory module of the terminal or a removable medium (for example a subscriber smart card) inserted into the terminal.
Such applications function in slave mode, i.e. an application is executed only when it receives a selection instruction. This selection instruction, sent by a communicating device known as a station, contains a parameter in the form of an identifier of the application to be selected.
Accordingly, a station located in the vicinity of the mobile terminal seeking to effect a transaction via an application installed in the security module of that mobile terminal sends a selection instruction containing the identifier of that application.
At present, these stations in principle know only one identifier corresponding to the service to be rendered, for example a payment identifier if the station is a payment station.
With the increase in the capacities of security modules, it is now possible to store a plurality of applications in the same security module, including a plurality of applications of the same type with different identifiers. The station can interrogate the security module by sending a specific command (“list applications” ADPU command) and obtain in return a list of identifiers of applications present in the security module. The station can then select one of those applications. The choice is therefore effected by the station.
The carrier of the mobile cannot intervene in this choice. This causes a problem when a plurality of equivalent applications are installed in the security module. In the payment field, for example, the holder of a mobile terminal who is a customer of a bank A and of a bank B and has installed in the security module connected to their mobile terminal an application A for transactions effected on their account with the bank A and an application B for transactions effected on their account with the bank B cannot assign preference to application A.